Soccer
Thanks for joining us!
This episode was written by Kara and voiced by Kara and T.
Episode art was drawn by Jean.
It was originally released in June 2026.
— Enjoy these books celebrating soccer —
Click on each photo for a link to the book on our Bookshop.org account
— Awesome soccer jerseys —
Argentina 2006 Home Messi Jersey on the FIFA website
Trinity Rodman’s Spirit in Bloom jersey with the Washington Spirit
Kid's Replica Nike Pele Brazil Home Jersey
— Watch some iconic World Cup moments —
— Learn more about the 2026 FIFA World Cup —
Learn more about the teams in the TEAM PROFILES
Keep track of each team’s points in the STANDINGS page
— Soccer Episode Notes —
Overview of the game of soccer (football) —
Soccer is known as football in most of the world. In places where there’s another popular game of football, like in the US and Australian Rules Football, they call it soccer.
It’s a game played between two teams, each trying to kick the same one ball, on a field.
Soccer fields are rectangles, with two goals, one at either end.
There are 11 players on the field at a time, including the goalie.
The goalie’s job is to defend their team’s goal, to stop the other team from kicking the ball into the goal.
The offense and defense of each team are on the field at the same time.
Detailed rules —
One of the most important things about soccer is that you can’t touch the ball with your hands! Players can bounce the ball off their feet, legs, head or their chest, but their hands can’t touch it!
Except for the goalie—the goalkeeper has special permission. Because that goal is so large, goalies often need to reeeaach out to stop the ball with their hands.
But the goalie is only allowed to do it in a certain area, a part of the field that’s near their goal. It has be within the __
If a ball goes out of bounds and it’s on the side of the field’s rectangle, then a player from the other team gets to throw it in!
If the defense gets out of bounds on the end of the field by the goal, the other team gets to do a corner kick! If the offense gets the ball out, the defense gets to put in the in the small box near the goal.
There are people whose job it is to make sure that the rules are followed: referees!
Players are allowed to try to take the ball from each other — if one player is kicking the ball, a player from another team can go right next to them to try to kick the ball themselves! But there are rules about how you can do that.
It is not allowed to kick or trip another player on purpose. You can’t try to delay, to take longer than you need to start playing. You can’t give the referee sass, or try to score a goal using your hands! If a player does one of these things that’s not allowed, a referee will give them a yellow card.
And a player can get a red card if they do something really hurtful to another player, like hitting them or trying hit to hit them, saying mean words, or using their hands to stop a ball from going in the goal!
And if a player gets 2 yellow cards, that equals a red card.
And that’s a big deal because if a player gets a red card, they’re out of the game, and the next game, and maybe even ones after that.
And if a player is removed for a red card, they don’t get a replacement. The team has to play with only 10.
Predecessors & history of soccer —
“Cuju” is a ball game that was played in China, over 2,000 years ago! The name translates to “kick ball” in English, and players would try to kick a ball through an opening in a net to score points.
The ancient Greek people had a game called “episkyros” that was played between two teams. They had a ball and would try to get it into the other team’s area. This game was rough though, and players had full contact and could use their hands and feet.
Over 600 years ago in England, there was a game kind of like our soccer. The nicknames for it are medieval football, folk football and mob football.
It was played in the streets and the ball was moved from town to town. Lots of people played it at one time. There weren’t as many rules and people could hurt each other while playing - You could push, shove, kick other player’s shins! Players could use their hands or feet and matches could last for hours or days!
There were these and other forms of the game. People had found all of these ways to play a game with a ball.
In England, where the sport was very popular, people played on teams for their schools. But even though the schools had similar ways of playing, they had their own rules. Imagine how confusing that was when trying to play against other teams!
So, in England in 1863, some leaders in the soccer world got together and agreed on a set of rules. They created the Football Association. And they started to spread these rules about soccer (they called it football, being in England), around the world.
Important soccer rules —
Every football field is the same size.
The goals are the same size.
The ball is always the same size.
The game starts in the middle of the field, with one team on each side of the center line.
At halftime, the teams switch which goal they’re trying to score into.
Players wear certain kinds of clothing and shoes. They have uniforms with their team’s colors. Each player has their own number. Soccer players wear shin guards to protect their legs and cleats on their feet which are shoes with little bumps on the bottom to help you run in the grass.
There are 11 players on a field at a time, but there are other players on the sideline. You can switch a player in for another one that’s called a substitution. Once a player is substituted out of the game, they can’t come back in!
Teams have coaches who help decide who plays, but they are not allowed to call time outs. There are no time outs in a soccer game!
A soccer game is played in 2 halves that each last 45 minutes. But they usually play for longer!
Soccer games have something called stoppage time! When the playing is stopped because of a penalty or injury, the game’s clock keeps going. So someone keeps track of how much time passed during those stops, and they add it to the end of each half. So the half doesn’t usually end at just 45 minutes.
Professional soccer leagues —
Professional players are on teams and they are paid money to play. Their job is to play soccer, how fun! And how hard!
Only the best of the best players in the world are able to do this. They have to work really hard to do this — players are dedicated to it, passionate about it. And it’s not just about playing a game on the pitch. They practice a lot and do all kinds of things to make sure that their bodies are strong and able to run for so long!
Maybe you’ve heard about some of them! Like some men’s professional teams Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and SC Corinthians and the women’s professional teams Barcelona and Lyon.
T’s grandpa likes the Tottenham Hotspurs, who play in the English Premiere League!
Leagues are won by the team with the most points. They get 3 points for winning a game and 1 point for a tie. At the end of the season, the team with the most points wins.
Some of the US men’s teams include the LA Galaxy and Inter Miami. US Women’s teams include the Washington Spirit, Gotham FC and Bay FC. FC stands for “Football Club.”
Trinity Rodman is an exciting player on the Washington Spirit team. She’s just 24 years old and the world got to see her play in the 2024 Summer Olympics on the United States team. She’s a huge talent and I can’t wait to see her play more!
Lionel Messi is a star soccer player who plays most of the time for the team Inter Miami CF. But he was born and raised in Argentina!
A player doesn’t have to be from a city to play on their team! Players come from all over the world to play in the top soccer leagues.
And oftentimes, the best teams will start to check out kids who are under 10 to see if they might want them to play some day!
The World Cup —
Players live all over the world to play professional soccer. But there are a few times when they take a special pause from the professional team that they play with to play for their country’s team! Including the Olympics and the World Cup.
Soccer is a sport in the Summer Olympic Games! Men and women both play.
In 2024 Olympic Games, the men’s team from Spain and the women’s team from the United States won gold medals!
Now, in 2026, we’ll get to watch the Men’s FIFA World Cup! The World’s MOST POPULAR SPORTING EVENT!
The World Cup is a tournament that happens every 4 years. Teams from different countries come together in one part of the world to play each other.
The first Men’s World Cup happened in Uruguay in 1930 with 13 teams. Uruguay won!
Now the Men’s World Cup is the biggest sporting event. Almost 100 years later, in 2026, there will be 48 men’s teams competing to be the best!
And the games in this World Cup tournament are being played in 3 different countries! Mexico, the United States of America, and Canada.
Next year, in 2027, the Women’s World Cup in Brazil!
The way the World Cup works is a bit complicated, but it’s really fun to get into! Because there are so many teams, they’re first split up into small groups.
There are 12 groups, each has 4 teams. The top 2 teams in each group go to the next round, along with the the next 8 best teams in all the groups.
First, the teams in the groups play each other. That’s called the group stage.
The best teams from those groups keep playing, they move on to the knockout rounds. If they lose, they’re knocked out of the tournament. And if a team wins, they keep playing.
Soccer games can end in a tie. But when playing a knockout stage / elimination match, where one team must win to keep playing, it can’t end in a tie!
So if two teams have the same score, the same number of goals, at the end of the game, they keep going! They play an extra 30 minutes, which is a long time to play when you’re exhausted from running around the field! If they’re still a tie after that extra 30 minutes, they do a shootout! Where 5 players from each team have a chance to kick the ball at the goal to score, and the goalie can defend it! It’s very exciting!
Teams keep going like that, playing games and knocking other teams out, until there are just 2 teams left. They play in one final game to see who’s the winner of the World Cup! For winning, they receive a gold trophy and a lot of bragging rights.
Winning the World Cup is a HUGE deal to the players and to the fans of those teams! And it is likely that 1.5 billion people will watch the World Cup final game! That’s one out of every 5 people on the planet! That’s why it’s thought to be the biggest sporting event in the world! It rarely happens that so many people watching one game.
The World Cup can make stars out of soccer players — helps people around the world know who they are.
Pele was a Brazilian soccer player and one of the best players of the game ever. He’s the only player ever to win 3 world cups! And he was 17 years old when he scored his first World Cup goal.
Diego Maradona was also one of the sport’s best players. He played for Argentina and scored some goals that people will remember forever! The “hand of god” goal and the “goal of the century”. Scored near each other in the 1986 cup.
Lionel Messi from Argentina and Crisiano Ronaldo from Portugal are playing now and have been the best players in the game for a long time. They’re incredibly good and incredibly famous. This is probably both of their last World Cups.
The country of France has so many great players, including Kilian Mbappe! He scored 3 goals in the World Cup finals in 2022 for France (but the team lost!). But he won it with France when he was a teenager!
Lamin Yamal is a teenager who plays for Barcelona and is already so talented. He’ll play for the team from Spain. Already a superstar in the world of professional soccer. How will he play in the World Cup??
Let’s watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup and see history made!